Didz
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Posts posted by Didz
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26th May 1942 'Tit for Tat' in China
The Battle for Kwieyang begins.
Emboldened by their success in capturing Kweilin Japanese troops surge across the Nanpan River and up the slopes of the mountains north of the town. The Chinese 44th Army is heavily bombed and finally overrun by a three pronged attack by Japanese Armies.
However, their sacrifice bought time for the rest of General's Xues troops to reach the high ground overlooking the Japanese positions and turning at bay the Chinese now pour fire down into the Japanese troops below them destroying the exposed Japanese 35th Army and inflicting severe casualties on the 2nd. The Battle for Kwieyang has begun in earnest.
Japanese forces attack in the Yangtze Valley
Further north Japanese forces have appeared once more at the mouth of the Yantze valley attacking the position of the Chinese 2nd Army.
Communist forces join the fight.
The appearance of Japanese troops at the mouth of the Yellow River valley has finally convinced the Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung to join the allies in the defence of China. His forces immediately moved south into the Yellow River, displacing the Nationalist 93rd Army in the defence of Sian and launching an immediate strike against the Japanese 13th Army on the west bank of the river. The Shansi Army of General Yen Hsi-Shan has also moved south. With Chinese Red Army now defending Sian, the Nationalist 93rd Army is moving to join General Xues army in the battle to defend Kweiyang.
The Defence of Burma
In Burma, Stillwells 6th Army has successfully prevented the Japanese taking the high ground east of Mandalay, despite heavy losses. Its place on the Salween River line has been taken by the newly arrived 66th Army from Kunming.
The British, African and Australian forces are now in position on the Chindwin River, though their supply position is extremely poor and it is dubious if they will hold this line for long in their current state. The Far Eastern Fleet is providing what support it can by bombarding Japanese forces near the coast and destroying Japanese supplies in the port of Rangoon. Meanwhile, the USAF 7th Bombardment Wing has arrived in India and has deployed to a base just west of Dacca ready to assist.
Preparations to defend Port Moresby
The decision having been taken to defend Port Moresby, the troops of Kanga Force supported by the Dutch fighters of the FEAF have taken station in the town. Whilst the Cruisers Perth and Achilles and the US destroyer John D Ford guard the sea approaches to the port.
Further east the US Pacific Fleet is heading south towards Samoa with the intention of entering the Coral Sea as soon as the weather improves. At the moment the fleet is escorting a convoy carrying the 1st USMC to Samoa to bolster the garrison on the island.
In the USA the carrier USS Hornet is taking delivery of the latest new aircraft design before sailing to join the fleet.
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Intelligence Reports from the Makassar Straits
Coastwatchers in both Borneo and Celebes report considerable Japanese naval activity in the Makassar Strait between the Java and Celebes Sea. At least one carrier has been spotted, together with two battleships and two cruisers. What is less clear is why they are there.
The reports claim that they are not sailing in company and that if anything they seem to be patrolled back and forth through the straits independantly. Whether this is merely routine traffic to and from their newly captured ports on the Phillipines, or whether these ships are keeping the area clear in readiness for another invasion once the weather clears only time will tell.
In the meantime, the US fleet which sailed from Pearl a few weeks ago with no clear mission has now been directed south towards the Coral Sea and the north coast of Australia. If these intelligence reports are the herald of another wave of Japanese invasions then the Australian's will need all the support they can get.
General Robert L. Eichelberger has been appointed commander of all forces in New Guinea and Northern Australia. US Forces have also been mobilised in Samoa and at Noumea on New Caledonia.
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Yeah! this is the problem I'm facing in Burma at the minute thanks to my stupidity in losing General Hutton at Mandalay. I suspect in restrospect that his survival was more important than holding Mandalay, and now my British units in Burma are all on 5 or less supply state.
According to the strategy guide I'm supposed to be doing that to the Japanese not myself.
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6th May 1942 For Better or Worse?
Grim news from both China and Burma, and hard decisions to be made.
Kweilin Has Fallen
Though not unpredicted the sudden loss of Kweilin took General Xue by surprise. Having extracted the poorly equipped 44th Army from the city sucessfully, Xue had expected the better equipped 10th Army to at least hold the city for a few weeks, but in fact, the 10th had hardly occupied their new positions when the Japanese stormed into the city with three Army groups and completely overrun the town destroying the 10th Army in the process.
As a consequence the rail link between Manchuria and Burma was now open and in Japanese hands, and accepting that there was no hope of driving the Japanese back out of the city, and that the forward defence line he originally established was now pointless, General Xue ordered his remaining Army Groups to fall back, to what would hopefully be a stronger, or at least shorter line, in defence of Kweiyang.
The fortification of Kweiyang was still far from complete and so Xue hoped to use the natural mountain defences surrounding the city to buy the engineers more time to complete their task.
The planned extraction of the 44th was put on hold once again as the destruction of the 10th had left it in the most exposed section of the front once again. Whether it could survive yet another pounding by the Japanese remained to be seen.
Meanwhile, the newly arrived 22nd Army was moved into the mountains south of the city. Whilst Xues headquarters and the rest of the army fell back into the mountains overlooking the road to Kweiyang.
The only offensive operation was a bombing mission by the 2nd Tactical Bomber Group on the exposed Japanese 35th Army as it tried to re-organise after crossing the Nanpan river.
Further north, the anticipated Japanese advance into the Yangtze valley has not yet materialised although the threat was enough to persuade General Yen Hsi-Shan to mobilise his personal army ready to defend Taiyuan.
General Xue is now even more concerned about his ability to defend China's resource area's.
Mandalay Falls - General Hutton Captured
In Burma more bad news as Japanese troops from the 4th Yokosuka SNLF storm into Mandalay and capture both the city and General Hutton.
The fall of the city and the elimination of its defenders has left a gaping hole in the planned Burma defence line, and the British forces leaderless. There is now nothing to prevent the Japanese crossing the Irrawaddy River and moving on the Chindwin.
Stillwell Takes a Gamble
With the right flank of his defence line on the Salween River now turned by the capture of Mandlay, Stillwell is left with the stark choice of falling back to defend Wanting to the east and thus widening the gap between his forces and the British or taking a gamble and trying to move to restrict it.
In the end, he decides to take a gamble and orders his 6th Army to leave its positions on the Salween and take up new defences in the mountains east of Mandalay. This will leave the 6th dangerously exposed, but may keep the Japanese busy long enough for the British to form a second defence line along the Chindwin River.
The British and Australians take to the hills
Discovering that the Japanese already have armour across the Irrawaddy River, the 7th Armoured and 1st Australian Corps fall back and begin to dig in amongst the hills and mountains south of Chittagong. The Australians left flank is resting on the Chindwin River, which it is hoped, will be enough to deter any assault from that direction until the East African Corps can be brought up in support.
The biggest concern at present is that the capture of General Hutton and his staff has left the British with no logistical and planning capacity and as a consequence the supply and readiness of all its formations is very low.
The Far Eastern Fleet steams into the Gulf of Martaban
At sea the Far Eastern Fleet has sailed into the Gulf of Martaban. The battleships Royal Sovereign and Prince of Wales shelled Rangoon destroying the supply facilities established there by the Japanese, whilst the destroyers and cruisers have moved to screen the entrance to the Gulf of Malacca sinking the Japanese destroyer 'Inazuma' in the process.
Whilst unable to launch any aircraft due to the weather, Indomitable has conformed to this movement and is now positioned off Port Blair to provide air cover for the battleships if needed.
Kanga Force arrives at Port Moresby
After a nerve racking naval voyage Kanga Force has been landed at Port Moresby. Upon their safe arrival they were immediately joined by the fighters of the Dutch East Indies Air Force from Darwin in the hope that they will be able to provide some degree of air cover against Japanese bombers. The cruiser HMAS Perth and the destroyer USS John D Ford are also offshore to intercept any attempted amphibious assault. Whilst, the entire area is under the air umbrella of the USAF 1st Bomber Wing at Cairns.
Hopefully, if the Japanese do try and land on New Guinea this will be enough to make them regret it.
US Fleet sails from Pearl
The US fleet at Pearl Harbour has put to sea. The Task Force consisting of the carrier's Saratoga and Enterprise plus the battleship Nevada and the Cruiser San Francisco plans to sail south with the intention of trying to arrest any further expansion of Japanese island bases towards Fiji and Samoa. However, at the moment they are carefully skirting the edge of the storm front which has moved in over this area, as they don't want to risk meeting a Japanese naval force whilst unable to fly any air missions.
This fleet will be joined by the carrier Hornet currently under refit at San Fransico and the battleships Idaho and Colorado that are already en-route.
Summary
Not a good turn. The loss of Kweiling, Mandalay, General Hutton and the 10th Army was nasty, even if predictable, and left some awkard situations to resolve. However, the landing of Kanga force on New Guinea and the sinking of a Japanese destroyer was some consolation. I'm still feeling my way into the mechanic's of this game, so I suspect some of these moves are probably laughable to those of you who understand it better. Most of what I'm doing is more intuitive than mathematically sound.
The suggested bombardment of Rangoon went well, I just hope I don't lose a BB in some unexpected Japanese counter move, and that it does give the Japanese in Burma a suitable logstical headache. I'm sort of expecting a sudden surge of Japanese shipping down the Malacca straits as a consequence, but whether the Far Eastern Fleet is up to meeting such a challenge remains to be seen.
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Hmm! well maybe next time, at the moment I'm finding things challenging enough.
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@Didz --- Exploits, isn't that really what war is? From the dawn of time when Cain slew his brother Abel mankind's war is about exploits.
No!.....
By expliots I don't mean something that might have been possible historically but which the commanders of the time didn't attempt, or couldn't attempt because they did not have the god-like knowledge and wisdom of hindsight and a high resolution tactical overview.
I literally mean expliots e.g. explioting loopholes in the game design.
For example:
HPS: Waterloo - the most famous expliot I can think of off-hand was using your supply wagon counters to block the French advance. Although as I recall this expliot was actually a counter to another expliot that the French player could use to capture the Allied ridge on turn one. I was actually in the NWC and the opening moves of most games were more or less ritualised by memorizing the expliots, and counter expliots.
Shogun Totalwar: - The peasant rush. It was discovered quite early on that because peasant spearmen ran faster than armoured spearmen, building an entire army of peasant spearmen and then boosting their honour and weapons stats with the credit you saved was actually better than recruiting samurai spearmen, and meant that you could never be caught and could just run rings round your opponent.
Medieval Total War: - Multiplayer Campaign. Allied players discovered they could obtain free armies if they gifted each other their cities back and forth each turn.
I'm sure there are others, but suffice it to say that so far I have never played PvP without coming across at least one expliot that gives the player in the know a distinct advantage.
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Thats quite depressing really. I mean I know its situation normal for any strategy game that the AI never puts up enough of a challenge, whilst in my experience PvP always ends up being a contest over who knows the best expliots.
It would be nice to find a game where the AI played a challenging game (without cheating) and where human opponents were limited to historically plausible strategies but I've yet to find one.
Part of the reason I like keeping an AAR is that it adds a bit more immersion to the single player game. I find the AAR forces me to at least justify why I'm doing things, and add a sort of roleplay twist to the game. So, I'm less prone to thinking of the game in terms of a number crunching exercise, where I'm simply working the odds.
I'm not sure how much impact it actually has on the choices I make, but at the very least it forces me to justify them in real life/historical rather than mathematical terms.
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Wow! thanks for all the supportive comments and advice (on other threads) guys.
I didn't think I was doing anything that special to be honest, just what I would normally do for an AAR on the Totalwar forum, screenshots are more or less expected there and most are annotated with notes etc. I just reasoned that a picture paints a thousand words so its easier to explain what happened with an annotated screen shot than trying to explain it in words.
Hopefully, I'll get some time today to do a bit more. I got delayed when I realised I didn't understand some of the things were happening, but you've helped me sort all that out for now, and my daughter went home yesterday, so I'm not going to be dragged round the shops for a while.
Hopefully, I should have the time to get a least one more turn today in if I don't waste too much time on todays RL chores.
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Didz, don't forget that a sub with full strength (10+) and full supply hurts convoy lines more than a sub with strength 5 and low supply. This makes a HUGE difference.
Good point I'd sort of forgotten the supply thing as far as USS Seal was concerned. It was probably pretty low stuck out there on its own with no friendly bases nearby. (Long way to go for fresh torpedoes)
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Early, save your UK and Chinese MPPs for rebuilding eliminated units that were in 5 or greater supply, reduced cost. Research IW and to a lesser degree AT and anti-air, later get UK mobility for the road back.
So, it sounds as though I've been doing the right thing in China. I've been reinforcing (rebuilding) the Chinese units of General Xue's Army which are normally supply level 7+, and all the Chinese units are +1 on infantry and anti-tank weapons.
UK it sounds like I've been wasting MPP's reinforcing units in Singapore whcih were probably less then the 5 supply level. That coupled with the fact that I rescued so many ships it cost a fortune to refit them all, has left me without the ability to purchase any additional units for Burma. I also opted delayed purchase so even if I do purchase some they won't appear immediately, I think there is a 3 month delay.
So, I probably did myself no favours in Burma.
USA = IT, PT, NW and advanced and LR air, heavy bombers, IW and on and on. Build HQs, you'll need to provide supply to those air assets and staging your amphibs from close islands for the next assault.I think the only mistake I made here is in not boosting my Iindustrial and production capacity straight away. I'm still about 500MPP's below the maximum investment allowed for the USA, mainly because of my decision to keep reinforcing the Phillipines Army to the end.
If I go again I'll try and do things differently, but for now I'll just try and live with the consequences of those bad decisions.
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Yes, I think I did get an 'Enemy Contact' report.
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Don't fret, doesn't look to me that the para unit has the required 7 supply to form up(prepare). If you want to make sure, take the supply and efficiency of the nearby port and city down a level or two(strategic attack).
Rangoon you mean?
How would I do that?
Can Battleships perform strategic bombardments, I don't have any bombers in Burma yet?
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Don't forget your subs' "silent" mode, raid a few turns and then maneuver, never stay long in restricted waters.
I get the impression in the early game that 'silent' isn't that silent. Certainly, the unlucky Dutch sub was in silent mode when it go pounced on and sunk, and its wasn't doing anything particuarly risky like sailing under the main Japanese fleet.
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Depends who your opponent is.
:confused: How so?
I mean my opponent in this particular game is the AI, as this is my first ever game, so I'm playing 'Single Player' on 'Begginer' difficulty.
However, I'm curious how your opponent would affect your MPP investment decisions. I assumed there would be an accepted optimum pattern to the investment of each faction early in the game. The only thing I imagined might change was the choice of purchased units, if ones opponent favoured a particular strategy.
Care to expand upon your comment with some examples?
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Who's got the Jap paratroop on the Coast? There's six shore bombardments waiting to happen, along with a couple on the tank.
Actually, I've been singularly unimpressed with the impact of naval bombardment so far. The [bB]Royal Sovereign and Prince of Wales have been pounding those paratroops and the armoured unit for a couple of turns will little noticeable effect. In fact, strangely the [CA]Exeter seems to have had more luck inflicting damage.
I'm not sure if this is because of the terrain, or simply reflects the ineffectiveness of naval bombardment (it didn't do much on D-Day either, so I'm told), but the main purpose at the time was actually to stop the parachutist preparing for a 'jump', as I have a horrible feeling they are going to land on Dimapur and ninja the city behind my planned defence line.
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Right! so its best to try and slip into the East China Sea if you can then.
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Get those submarines into a more vital shipping route and you will see a big difference in the MPP's that your enemies will lose. It doesn't appear to be that easy in the Pacific however, with the Japs clogging up most of the routes from the Dutch Isles to the Japanese coast.
So, are the different trade routes worth different amounts. Seal seemed to be getting mostly Indo-China trade, I don't think there was much going down the Malaya one although the one report it did get from that route was still only 8MPP.
But it never entered the East China Sea to attack the Manchukuo convoys, are they worth more?
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As it's the Monsoon season in your game, I'd suggest getting that carrier to a safe port asap.
Hmm! good point its a sitting duck if it can't launch its aircraft. Mind you I'm not sure there is such thing as a safe port in the Bay of Bengal at the moment.
Presumably, the same rules apply to Japanese Carriers and land based aircraft so its worth thinking about. There's a Japanese Carrier wandering about in the Celebes Sea at the minute that might be vulnerable if its raining there too.
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According to the strategy guide in the manual they are. And specifically because they can interdict enemy trade lanes are eliminate enemy MPP's.
So, not knowing any different at the start of my campaign both my [sS] units heading for the Indo-China trade route to begin hunting Japanese merchantment.
The Dutch [sS] didn't even make it being spotted and sunk despite running silent, but the USS Seal managed to get into the China sea and I was getting regular reports of the damage it was doing to Japanese merchant shipping.
However, even Seal's luck ran out eventually and she was sunk last turn.
This set me thinking. By my reckoning USS seal managed to intercept Japanese merchant ships more or less every turn, and according to the reports each time she did the Japanese lost 8MPP.
So, I reckon altogether she clocked up at most 48MPP, before she was found and sunk. But replacing her will cost me 200MPP, so as far as I can see I'm just over 150 MPP out of pocket on the whole episode. (Even more if you count the lost Dutch sub)
So, how does this tally, is there some hidden benefit to camping the trade lanes that isn't reported. In reality of course it wasn't so much the sending of the cargo to Davey Jones that made submarine warfare so damaging but the loss of the merchant ship carrying it. That would probably cost almost as much as the sub to replace, but we don't have to buy them in the game.
Historically, I think I'm right in saying that towards the end of the war Japan was literally running out of merchant ships because she couldn't replace them fast enough, but that doesn't see to come across in what I've seen so far.
From a simple accounting basis it looks like I would have been better off keeping my subs safe in their bases, until a nice juicy carrier came along.
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I'm beginning to think I may have gone wrong in my Operation Z campaign. I just don't seem to have enough units to defend Burma, and or, the Pacific, and I'm wondering if that's because I invested my MPP's unwisely.
What I've been doing in using MPP's to reinforce my existing units, particularly those defending the Phillipines and Singapore. I reasoned that, as it was almost impossible to extract ground units by sea from these islands, I might as well keep topping them up with reinforcements and make the Japanese fight for them.
However, I'm beginning to wonder whether that was such a good idea. It used a lot of MPP's early in the game which could have been invested in production and industry, or even used to purchase units, and basically I was just paying to tie enemy units down as ultimately the Japanese were going to win and were unlikely to lose much in doing so.
Just wondered what other people spend their MPP's on early in the game.
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Rain rain go away
Come again some other day...
Is that all it is?
Didn't realise rain had that much effect on air operations in this period.
Yep! looks like you're right, now i know what I'm looking for I found it in the manual quite quickly.
Rain/Fog: All air units are grounded and cannot attack, re-base or spot enemy units during Fog of War. Operational Movement is still allowed.Does it only restrict flying if it affects the target, or the air unit, or either?
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I'm a bit confused.
As you can see my Far Eastern Fleet is engaged in desperate coastal bombardment missions to try and stem the advance of the Japanese in Burma, and the Carrier HMS Indomitable, is just off the coast providing air cover.
Whats confusing me is that try as I might I can't get her to launch any strikes, the target reticule just doesn't appear when I hover over an enemy unit.
I've tried eveything I can think of in terms of mode changes but nothing seems to work, and I can't see anything in the manual that explains what I migth be doing wrong.
It's sort of suspended my campaign as I am reluctant to carry on without understanding what I'm doing wrong.
Any idea's?
Oh! BTW....any advice on what the hell I can do to stop the Japanese advance would also be welcome. I've just lost control of Mandalay and General Huttons HQ which was stationed there, so things look pretty bad. My best idea so far is to move the Chinese Army west to try and block the gap, but I suspect they will just get chewed up too as the Irrawaddy valley isn't very good defensive terrain.
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16th April 1942 (cont'd) The Phillipines have fallen
After months of fighting the US forces in the fortress of Corregidor have finally surrendered and the Phillipines are now completely in Japanese hands.
On another sad note the luck of the USS Seal (SS183) which had been hunting Japanese merchant ships in the China Sea since the start of the war finally run out this month and she was sunk somewhere off the coast of Okinawa.
US Fleet Returns to Pearl Harbour
The first elements of the US Pacific Fleet have returned to Pearl Harbour. The battleship USS Nevada never actually left being refloated and repaired at Pearl after the Japanese attack, however, she has now been joined by the cruiser USS San Francisco and the destroyer USS Conyngham. Further elements should arrive over the next few days including the carriers Saratoga and Enterprise.
Meanwhile back in San Deigo the USS Colorado (BB45) has arrived from Washington and is starting a refit before joining them.
MacArthur arrives in in Brisbane
After a long train journey from Adelaide General MacArthur has arrived in Brisbane to join the 148th Field Artillery already stationed there, and a decision will need to be made on how best to use his talents.
Kanga Force sails for Port Moresby
In the meantime, the British having almost completed the refit of their Far Eastern Fleet are beginning to invest limited resources in the defence of Australia.
In particular, they have decided to try and defend New Guinea and are in the process of transporting Kanga Force to Port Moresby, escorted by the cruiser HMAS Perth. Hopefully, the Japanese fleet will stay out of the Coral Sea until after they have arrived.
American Industry Gears Up for War.
The initial issue of whether to invest in industry or the navy had resulted in most investment being focussed on getting the existing fleet ready for war.
Now with that task almost complete the US government has begun to focus on maximising its industrial potential in order to provide its armed forces with the best tools to do the job, and a lot more of them. Total research funding now stands at 1,250 MMP our of a possible 1,750 and the US intention is to spend an additional 500 MMP as soon as possible.
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I agree with your post at WW2 Wrath of Time, it seems like every time a new game is released we start all over again with a wish list. By now, after 20+ years, you would think the near-perfect war game would have been developed with all the experience that is floating around out there. But each game is two steps forward and one step back.
I often wonder about that too.
It seems to me that all a game designer needs to do is combine the best aspects of three or four games to produce the perfect wargame, but the challenge seems beyond them.
Strategic Bombers: Best use of....
in Strategic Command - PACIFIC THEATER
Posted
Having just moved the USAF 7th Bombarment Group into operational range near Dacca. I'm just wondering what you would recommend to be the best strategy for their employment. The knee-jerk reaction is to try and bomb the living daylights out of the Japanese units putting pressure on the Chindwin line. But the manual seem to suggest they might be better employed hitting the Japanese supply lines. Perhaps! bombing Rangoon?
(see http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1160768&postcount=29)
Any advice welcome:rolleyes: